I slept right through dinner and woke up the next morning by Felicia shaking me.
"Wake up, Rose," she said. "This is a big day. Get up."
"Is it the Quidditch match?" I asked wildly.
"No," Felicia said. "But today is the day that James Potter will fall in love with me. Come on, get up."
At breakfast I nibbled at a few sausages. Felicia frowned at me. "You don't eat meat."
"I do now," I told her.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said. "I'm fine. I just – I don't know, I need the protein."
"You'd better be okay," said James darkly from a few seats down the table. I wondered if his hearing was super sensitive or something, seeing as he could hear us. "We're playing Slytherin on Saturday, and we need to win."
"Are you talking to me again?" I asked brightly.
James frowned, as though remembering something. "No," he said and turned back to his food.
Felicia explained her plan for the love potion to me. Apparently, several of the ingredients were kept in the store room in the Potions classroom.
"I don't know," I said. "I've already had detention twice, and I am a Prefect."
Felicia sighed. "Look, it's going to be okay! Nothing is going to happen."
Her plan was riddled with mistakes, but I decided not to say anything in the spirit of friendship.
In Potions class, I felt like some sort of repulsive alien. Demetria, whom I thought I had gotten on friendly terms with, glared at me. I looked at her, trying to assume a sort of puzzled expression, sort of trying to say "what – did – I – do?", but then she only glared at me even more, and I decided that I actually did deserve it, after all.
Scorpius completely ignored me, sitting behind me and not talking to me, not even looking at me. I wondered why I was feeling so hurt by this. I had turned him down, after all. It wasn't like I had the right to expect us to be friends now.
Though, I had maybe not expected Scorpius not to talk to me at all. But what was the other option? Not having a whole family talk to me? Besides, I had offered to go out with Scorpius in secret. I didn't feel that that was an entirely unreasonable thing to say. I actually felt that I had taken the high horse there, trying to bargain. But that, apparently, hadn't been good enough. Al went to go sit next to me, but Felicia shoved him away and slid into the seat next to me, beaming.
"I'm so excited!" she whispered. "It's going to be great!"
I wanted to tell her that her plan was ridiculous, and that I actually felt sorry for Al, that he was just being shoved away, but I decided not to say anything, again, in the spirit of friendship.
Throughout the entire Potions class I was unfocused. My mind kept wandering to how many horrible ways I could get punished for stealing form the potions store room. I also started counting off the number of ways that Felicia's plan could go wrong. Then I deliberated what would happen if I told Felicia that I didn't want to be a part of her stupid plan, but I decided that remaining a Prefect wasn't worth losing a friend.
I felt that I had been making a lot of big choices lately, none of which I felt entirely sure about.
Once the Potions class finally finished, I turned around, trying to catch Scorpius' eye, but he stood up and left so quickly that he forgot his book. For a few moments I contemplated grabbing the book and running after him, but Felicia was tugging my arm, and I pretended to be packing my things, very slowly.
Finally, Slughorn was the only one left in the room with us.
"Shouldn't you be running along, girls?" he asked us.
I didn't say anything. Felicia kicked me under the table. "Actually, Professor," I said, hating every word that came out of my mouth. "I have been having some trouble. I want to check a book out of the Restricted Section for some extra studying, but Madam Pince won't give it to anyone but a teacher…"
"Oh, now, which book is that?" asked Slughorn, beaming at me.
"The Wicked Effects of Magical Potions on Muggles," I told him.
"Oh, yes, quite an interesting book – of course, it is not for the lighthearted – but, yes, Miss Weasley, I quite understand that a brilliant student like you would want that – I would be delighted to borrow it for you."
"Great," I said.
"In fact," continued Slughorn. "I shall do so right now, you know, my memory – not what it once was! You'll close the door, won't you girls?"
"Thank you, Professor," I said, feeling guilty.
Professor Slughorn bustled off and Felicia jumped to her feet, half ran over to the store room and muttered, "Alohamora."
The door opened, and we crept inside.
"Alright, let's look at the list," said Felicia.
"Hurry up!" I told her, as she took it carefully out of her pocket and took her time meticulously reading every ingredient, and then looking around for it.
"I need to do it properly," she snapped at me. "You don't want me to poison your cousin, do you?"
"No, but Slughorn might be back at any moment, I don't want any more detentions!"
"Relax," said Felicia.
Finally, finally, she was done, and we stepped out of the store room, our arms loaded with ingredients.
"Let's get out of here, quick," I said, and watched as Felicia shut the door, locked it again, and then I turned around to go back to my desk – and then my eyes met Scorpius'.
For a few moments we just stood and stared at each other. Me, the thief, the heartbreaker, the cold and heartless female, and him, looking all sweet and innocent and confused, standing there with his book in his hand. He quickly shoved it into his bag and left in a hurry.
I let out a breath that I didn't realize I had been holding.
"He had better not tell anyone," Felicia mumbled.
"I don't think he will," I said. "I think we can trust him."
"I hope so!" Felicia exclaimed.
We put the ingredients into our pockets and our bags and set off for our next class.
"What am I going to do with that book, anyway?" I asked Felicia, as we walked along a corridor. "It's not like I actually want to read it, I think it's quite gruesome. I'll have nightmares."
Felicia rolled her eyes. "So don't read it. Just skim the pictures."
"Actually, I think that the pictures are the worst part of it," I said, just as a voice behind us called out, "Weasley! Cropper!"
We stopped and turned around, and my heart sank. Professor McGonagall was walking towards us, quite briskly, considering her age. She stopped in front of us, glaring at us.
"Empty your pockets," she said. Felicia and I looked nervously at each other.
"May I ask why?" Felicia asked.
"Miss Cropper, you will do as you are told. Empty. Your. Pockets."
I had never really thought of Professor McGonagall as a frightening person before, as she had always seemed to like me, seeing as I'm clever and rule – abiding (or used to be rule – abiding) and all, but right at that moment, she was doing my Death Glare much better than I ever have.
Felicia reluctantly started pulling the ingredients out of her pockets, so I followed suit, feeling as though I was being lead to the gallows all along. We handed them over to Professor McGonagall.
"And your bags!" she ordered, and we emptied those as well. By the time we had handed the last of it over, I was red – faced with shame.
"I am most disappointed in you, girls!" Professor McGonagall told us, frowning heavily. "When Mr. Malfoy came to tell me that you had been stealing form the Potions store room, I could not believe my ears! Such clever young ladies like yourselves! I am especially disappointed in you, Miss Weasley. Do not make me regret my decision to appoint you as a Prefect."
I hung my head. I also seemed to have lost my voice.
"Forty points from Gryffindor, each," she said, and then she turned on her heel and left us.
Felicia turned to me, her eyes wide. "Scorpius Malfoy told her!"
I could feel the hot rage building up inside of me. What did he do that for? I thought he liked – possibly, maybe – even loved me. What did he go reporting my crimes to McGonagall for? I wanted to confront him about it, but most of all, I wanted revenge.
"This is war," I told Felicia.
The rest of the day, I was in a rage towards anyone stupid enough to speak to me. I felt hot, angry and bothered, and it barely took anything before I snapped at people for almost nothing. I didn't see Scorpius that day at all (which was probably mostly lucky for him) but I did see Ophi once, however, we had barely made eye contact when he skirted over to the other side of the corridor to avoid me. Great. So no one wanted anything to do with me.
Finally the day came to an end, and after dinner I slumped in the Common Room to do some homework, deciding against talking to anyone. I was just opening a Herbology book, when James said loudly, "Oh, look, the team's traitor is back."
I sighed, and shut the book with a snap. "So am I allowed to come to practice tomorrow?" I asked James. "We are, after all, playing Slytherin on Saturday."
"Oh, nervous about not playing well in front of your boyfriend?" James said, a nasty smile on his face.
"James," said Avril tentatively. "I really think that Rose should come and practice, the team doesn't function without her…"
"Have you broken up with Malfoy, yet?" James asked me, ignoring her.
"He's not my boyfriend," I said quietly, trying to block him out.
"Sorry, Rosie, didn't quite get that?" James said, stilling smiling in that awful way, showing off his teeth, where, by the way, a little food was stuck.
"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" I bellowed. The whole Common Room fell oddly calm, just watching the two of us.
"You were certainly acting like that the other day!
"Well, he's not!" I cried, not really caring that all the Gryffindors were listening, only caring about wiping that stupid smile of his face. "He is not my boyfriend, he is twat, but you know who the biggest twat is?" I don't wait for an answer. "YOU, JAMES! You're the biggest twat in the world. You're the one who has a problem with the Slytherins, everyone else thinks that they are perfectly nice people. You're the one with the serious issues, if you think that it's okay to shut out a family member, just because they might be going out with someone that you don't like!"
And having said that, I hurled my (very heavy) Herbology book right into James' face, where it slammed against his nose with a crack. I jumped to my feet and ran out of the Common Room, before anyone could tell that I was crying.
Thanks for reading, and remember to please review! And by the way – Merry Christmas!